Education

Charters' Study: Tolerance Before Economics

Racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity among charter school students helps students, a study suggests, though to do more would require changes to funding.(AP Photo/George Nikitin)

Diverse settings help students develop high-level critical thinking and cognitive skills and encourage children to grow into tolerant adults, according to a report that suggests reducing charter schools’ focus on economic need.

Rather than emphasizing funding charter schools that educate high-poverty and minority students, government funders and philanthropists should encourage charter schools to develop diverse student bodies, the Century Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, said in its findings released in May.

Schools that are racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse are better for the kids, it said, and low-income students from diverse charter schools have better networks to facilitate employment when it comes time to look for a job.

The report made the following recommendations:

Federal policy should create incentives for located charter schools in areas that combat racial and socioeconomic isolation.

The U.S. Department of Education should increase funding for schools that encourage diversity - particularly those that use income-based lotteries to create diverse student bodies.

On the state level, governments should allow regional or inter-district charter schools, rather than restricting charters to individual districts, as is done in some states.

The states should also create incentives for charters to create diverse schools. Those incentives should be comparable to the priorities some states place on schools with concentrations of at-risk or low-income students.

Foundations should broaden their portfolio of charter schools, to include charters that serve low-income children by educating the in integrated environments - not just charters that serve high-poverty students.